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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28861347">Downgrade</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flannigan/pseuds/Flannigan'>Flannigan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A bit of Survivor's Guilt, Angst, Funeral, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Most of Rookie Nine is mentioned or a minor part</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:34:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,151</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28861347</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flannigan/pseuds/Flannigan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dominoes fall and lead to terrible results. </p>
<p>Aburame Shino, the last genin of Team 8, attends Hyuga Hinata's funeral. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>Prompt used: Canon Divergence</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Written stories for Shino Week 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Downgrade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Shinoweek21, Day 3: Canon Divergence</p>
<p>This isn't fluffly. Enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shino frowned deeply in disgust. It was such a beautiful day. Cloudless skies, gentle sunlight and birdsong. The flowers were vibrant, the butterflies and bumblebees pleased.</p>
<p>Very nature itself had spit in the face of the occasion. Funerals aren't supposed to be like this. His world was shattered and the birds still sang, there were no colours and joy, and the sun still shone?</p>

<p></p><div>
  <p></p>
  <div>
    <p>The area before the headstone reserved for the deceased's family was nearly empty. Hiashi had probably felt obligated to drag his heir and an entourage of Hyuga Branch family servants to the ceremony to keep up appearances that he cared. No one else had shown.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Hiashi paid the briefest of respects to his eldest daughter's grave, and signalled for his servants it was time to leave the ceremony. He turned his back on Hinata just as he had when she was alive. Why would it be different when she was dead? Shino bit his tongue hard, stopping short of biting through.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>When the flock of Hyugas passed, he reached out a hand and gripped Neji's upper arm, forcing him to stop. Neji didn't even look at him or yank out of his hold.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Are you satisfied now?" Shino asked.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Neji looked like he'd speak, then tightened his jaw and tore out of Shino's grip and walked away. Shino glared after him. Tch. He hadn't even properly prayed for Hinata's spirit.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Why would he?</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Shino strode into the reserved space-he was the closest thing to Hinata's family as far as he considered-and dared anyone to object. But to his surprise others tricked in to join him closest to the gravestone. Their graduating class-the ones who hadn't bullied her daily, at least-quietly fell in around him, and took turns somberly leaving tokens and flowers and praying.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Nara Shikamaru placed a braid of rare flowers on the ground, bowed deeply, and stepped back. He stopped next to Shino, and he'd never seen him with that expression before. Anxious.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Shino," Shikamaru said with a withered voice. "I... I'm sorry."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Shino's throat closed up. He nodded once, and Shikamaru walked away, head lowered.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Shibi came and stood on Shino's right side, leaning down to speak hushed:</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"You shouldn't have blamed Neji-kun in public like that."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"He tried to kill her during the chuunin exam," Shino said, not hushed, gaining a few glances. "He gave her a severe heart condition that made it impossible to keep being a shinobi." It had crushed Hinata's dreams. She had leaned on them for support, and Kiba became her pillar.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Kurenai's varm voice came up on his other side, saying his name. His eyes pricked at the sound as she put an arm over his shoulders and leaned into him. Shino looked up. Her eyes were red and brimming with tears.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"How are you?" she asked.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>What was he supposed to answer? He was heartbroken. The pain in his chest made it hard to breathe and think clearly.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>They were dead. All three of them. That was all the clarity he had.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>He shrugged as reply, and her thumb stroked his shoulder gently.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"First Kiba and Akamaru—" she sobbed and held a handkerchief to her mouth as tears ran down her face, and then she muttered: "They said I was getting too attached..."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Shikamaru's catastrophic failure of a first mission as chuunin to catch and retrieve Sasuke. Chouji was still in a coma, Neji had only just recovered, and Kiba... was found gutted, cradling his faithful dog. They were buried together. In death as in life. Shino regretted more than anything that he wasn't able to go on the mission, he could've changed things...</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>It was after Kiba's funeral Hinata had sobbed into his shoulder and passed out. It happened so quick. He'd thrown his voice yelling for help.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>She'd passed of unknown complications during emergency treatment.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Hey, Hinata." Shino looked to see Naruto and Sakura together by the grave. Sakura knelt and put her hands together, while Naruto held out an origami charm to the photograph of Hinata. It was shaped like a frog, and yellowed with age. "See? I said I'd keep it safe forever, so... So." Naruto's voice trembled and he threw an arm over his face and raised his voice as if he wanted the whole village to hear: "You were always nice to me! So I'll miss you every day!"</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Naruto..." Sakura said and reached for him, but he whirled around and darted out of there, cursing Uchiha Sasuke's name. Sakura looked sadly after him, and stepped back to join the crowd in attendance.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"I hope the boy doesn't blame Sasuke-kun," Kurenai said sadly.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Why not?" Shino said thickly and quickly coughed to clear his throat. "The mission was for Sasuke's sake. If he hadn't abandoned us they'd both be alive."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Kurenai squeezed his shoulder in the heavy silence that followed, and his father even touched the back of his head in a rare show of affection. They didn't correct or chastise him, when they would have normally. They blamed it on his grief and anger and tolerated his outbursts, for now. But someone was always at the root, the cause, the first domino to fall.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Sasuke was a dead man if Shino ever laid eyes on him.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"I'm stepping down as the sensei of Team 8 from today on."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Shino stopped breathing, froze in place. Not this.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"I can't—" Kurenai took a deep breath. "You're reassigned to Hatake Kakashi's team."</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Suddenly Shino felt crowded in. Trapped. Smothered by Shibi and Kurenai, too closely watched, eyes drilling into him. They watched him like he was made of glass, ready to catch the shattering pieces.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>"Yes, Kurenai-san," he choked out. And started to crack. Kurenai spoke more, he didn't listen. He shrugged out of her hold and enshrouded himself in a swathe of kikai, fled with chakra-enhanced muscles and disappeared in the swarm, invisible to most eyes with the speed. He exited the body flicker technique three streets over and hit the ground running. All the holes in his heart echoed with the cries he choked down.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>His mother.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Torune.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Kiba and Akamaru.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Hinata.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Now Kurenai cast him aside.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>Why was he always left out, thrown away, the last one behind?</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>His chest hurt so much his kikai buzzed around him in search for the attacker even as he reached a safe haven in the Aburame compound. Shock, sympathy and concern was shot his way by his fellow clan-members as he ran undignified and pathetic in funeral clothes, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>He made it home, ran up the wall in the stairs to his room and slammed the door shut, grasping his throat with shrill gasps-his throat was tearing itself apart from the inside. He slid down on the floor as kikai swarmed around him, confused and panicked.</p>
  </div>
  <div>
    <p>The birds chirped on happily through the cracked window.</p>
  </div>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've rarely made myself cry while writing. I cried a whole bunch by the time I was done with this. I don't know why. I really got into it. </p>
<p>Anyway.<br/>So what if Shino was in Team 7 with Sakura and Naruto, huh?<br/>I hope you like.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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